‘The Thesis of Supporting Georgia’s Territorial Integrity Sounds Extremely Cynical’: Armenian MPs Respond to Pashinyan

“In my public statements, I have mentioned several times that we fully and unequivocally support the unity and statehood of Georgia,” stated Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan recently.

Armenian legislators from Abkhazia have issued a statement addressed to Prime Minister Pashinyan. The text of the statement was published on the Telegram channel of the Abkhaz news outlet ‘Nuzhnaya Gazeta’.

“After the tragedy that occurred in Artsakh, when the current Armenian leadership condemned its own 120,000 citizens living in Nagorno-Karabakh to displacement, Pashinyan’s recent speech could have gone uncommented. However, the thesis of supporting Georgia’s territorial integrity sounded extremely cynical. It is cynical not because the Republic of Abkhazia is an independent state and has nothing to do with sovereign Georgia, but because several years ago Yerevan loudly asserted that Artsakh is Armenia and would not allow any Azerbaijani encroachment on the territory of Karabakh.”

“Unfortunately, the subsequent development of events has shown that the Armenian authorities are subject to expediency and easily change their positions, including on such a sensitive issue for the entire Armenian community as the existence of the Artsakh state. The fact of its disappearance from the political map of the world is entirely the ‘merit’ of official Yerevan, which did everything to halt the idea of building a sovereign Artsakh Republic. Let us remember that tens of thousands of people sacrificed their lives for its creation.”

“We view Pashinyan’s statements as a demarche against our Homeland – the Republic of Abkhazia. The statements made by the Prime Minister certainly left a negative impression on us and created an unpleasant aftertaste.”

“Let us remind Mr. Pashinyan that 42,000 citizens of Armenian ethnicity live in Independent Abkhazia, and the indigenous population has created all the conditions for studying our native language and preserving unique customs and traditions. We proudly call Abkhazia our homeland.”

“In conclusion, of course, Armenia can support the territorial integrity of Georgia. But the sovereign Republic of Abkhazia has absolutely nothing to do with it. For already 30 years, our multi-ethnic people have been building their state. And unlike Pashinyan, there are no political figures in Abkhazia who would question the people's choice and, with a stroke of a pen, obliterate a country that has been conquered with the blood of its sons and daughters,” the statement from the Armenian MPs in the Abkhaz parliament reads.